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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25055230">May I Draw You?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ohta__san/pseuds/Ohta__san'>Ohta__san</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Eventual Romance, F/M, Fuck Canon, I straight up forgot to actually post it here and not just on tumblr, I'm not gonna kill y'all with a legit slow burn but who knows, Izuna stays bitch, Reader-Insert, Slow Romance, Uchiha Izuna Lives</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 00:29:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,147</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25055230</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ohta__san/pseuds/Ohta__san</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An artist approaches the clan head in a local tea shop.</p><p>[Cross posted on Fanfiction.net and Tumblr by Author]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Madara Uchiha &amp; Reader, Madara Uchiha x Reader, Madara Uchiha/Reader, Uchiha Madara &amp; Reader, Uchiha Madara/Reader, uchiha madara x reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>114</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Madara finds himself back at his favorite tea shop after being away on a mission for nearly two weeks. As clan leader he made it his second priority to let himself go out into the “real world” to get his favorite snack and people watch. The owner knew him quite well—who didn’t. He would appear two to three times a week. Mora Tamagi, the owner, along with his wife, Mora Uji, and children came from the mountains and traveled down to the newly settled village. Tamagi’s reasoning being that his family deserved to settle down in a more social and safe atmosphere.</p><p>“Ah! Madara-san it’s so good to see you again. I’ll get Tamagi for you,” Uji greeted the man the same way the mother would greet her youngest and forever traveling son Katsuo.</p><p>Madara replies, “No need. I’ll take the usual.” </p><p>Uji nods and disappears behind the indigo noren and into the kitchen to prepare his sweet snack.</p><p>He looks around seeing many of the normal customers respectfully avoiding eye contact with him. However, he notices a young woman he vaguely remembers seeing the day before glancing away one second too late.</p><p>Uji returns with his mitarashi dango and kukicha tea, “hmm I see you keep catching our local artist’s eye.”</p><p>“Oh?” his gaze travels back towards [Y/N]’s seated form.</p><p>“She is probably going to be blunt about it,” Madara looks back at Uji as she speaks, “Her asking if she can draw you that is. She’s from a distant small village and knows nothing of clan relations. Her clan never encountered the war times we endured,” she huffs, ”Lucky woman.”</p><p>Tamagi appears out of nowhere, “yes she can be quite off-putting. You should excuse her behavior son, she simply works with an air of ignorance, which has unfortunately isolated her here in the Leaf.”</p><p>“I’ll keep that in mind,” with that Madara walks away with his snack and seats himself three tables away from the young woman. [Y/N] looks up from her drawing pad as Madara sits down. She takes in his appearance. A simple thin black turtleneck, tucked in black pants, and his hair in a low ponytail. His outfit was straightforward and made him seem more put together in her eyes. With a puff of air through her nose, she decides to let him enjoy his small meal before approaching him. In the meantime, she lets the other customers grab her attention and halfheartedly sketches various styles with her brushes and pens.</p><p>Twenty minutes pass by when she decides to glance towards him again. Seeing that his mitarashi dango is mostly eaten and his eyes are scanning around the room, she stands. With her drawing pad in hand [Y/N] walks towards him, a polite smile on her face. Madara slowly drags his gaze to her, uncrosses his arms, and places his now folded hands on the table in front of him.</p><p>“Pardon my boldness. My name is [L/N] [Y/N], may I draw you? You have such a lovely bone structure it’d be a crime not to capture your natural beauty.”</p><p>He raises an eyebrow, true to the Mora family’s word she was bold and…odd. What really caught his attention was her unyielding eye contact. Her eyes shining with determination. As if she was daring him to say no.</p><p>Keeping his black eyes even with hers he replies, “Of course. You will have to come to my clan’s compound due to my compact schedule. I will send word to your shop with details”—he stands abruptly—”good day [L/N]-san.”</p><p>She quickly backs up out of his way, watches him go, and matches the energy of his curt farewell, “good day, sir.”</p><p>She returns to her seat and realizes she didn’t even receive the man’s name.</p><p>========================================================</p><p>[Y/N] is lounging in the drawing room of her tiny shop. She’s currently finishing a piece for a large shinobi family. They requested eight paintings of each of their summons. Their contracts were toads, an odd summons to her, but she’s encountered more bizarre ones. Elk and slugs being at the top of her little list.</p><p>She glances at the toad in front of her. A wild caught amphibian the father of the household gave her as a reference for his own toad. Of course this scaled down one didn’t come anywhere near the magnificence of the man’s long-time companion. The toad in front of her looked tiny and bland compared to the gorgeously colored and insanely large toad she was shown.</p><p>[Y/N] leans back down to continue one of its legs when the bell at the front of the shop rings. She sets down her brush to head to the front. She adjusts a couple of her paintings on display while on her way there.</p><p>A young man is staring at one of her more recent landscape paintings. His arms are crossed and he seems to be in deep concentration before she appears in his line of sight and his full attention is on her.</p><p>“Hello there! I would like to schedule a family portrait before we leave the area for brighter flowers! We’ll be finishing up packing in the next three months or so. If possible, could you do a landscape painting of our home as well? Nothing complicated just the basic major details around it. I fell in love with these ones you’ve got on display here and my my are they something!”</p><p>Such an animated speaker. [Y/N] nods and gives him an estimate on the price and a time frame to get his request done.</p><p>“Fantastic!! And at such a reasonable price too,” he leans closer towards her with a hand next to his mouth as a way to block out any eavesdropping people walking by, “can you believe Asani across town tried to charge me over triple your price and for something at a much lower quality. It seems his prices are compensating for something.”</p><p>[Y/N] gives him a nervous smile and distant chuckle to his “gossip.” Of course she knew about Asani and his outrageous service. She gets twice the customers, which means twice the amount of money at a steady flow. The poor man has tried to drive people away with false sales and discounts to take away from her business. But alas, better quality combined with lower prices at her small shop will always beat the middle aged man.</p><p>She finishes up with the man in front of her and sends him away with a detailed document for their scheduled appointment. Once he is out of sight she heads back to her work station and continues the toad paintings.</p><p>An hour later a caw comes from the entrance of her shop. A large hawk swoops in and lands on the end of her desk. It lets out a low chirp and turns its head to look at her with both eyes. [Y/N] blinks at the hawk in surprise. She rushes to the storage room in the back to grab a mouse for the animal. The bird excitedly hops a couple times and lets out a chirp. She hands it the mouse and grabs the note attached to its leg. Having forgotten about her conversation with the man from the tea shop she assumes it’s from the Kagaya family asking about their toads.</p><p>The hawk gratefully swallows the rodent, chitters at [Y/N], and flies away back to its owner. She opens the scroll, scanning the document and becomes more interested in its contents after reading, “…the man you met in the tea shop you seemed to be unable to look away from.” An embarrassed grumble escapes from between her lips. Before she even reads to the end of the letter she drops the document on the floor.</p><p>“HE’S THE CLAN LEADER?!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>[Y/N] checks everything one last time, adjusting the seat Madara will be in for a third time even though she is going to have to do the same thing when he sits down. His change of plans to complete the portrait at her shop instead of the compound got to her nerves. It was a simple change due to his own schedule, but having a clan leader in her shop for the better part of the day got to her. It’s not common to have someone so important there.</p><p>She takes a drink of water before walking towards the front of the shop to greet the clan leader. Upon making it halfway through she sees Madara and a member of his clan accompanying him approaching the front entrance. She smiles warmly towards the two and welcomes them inside. Madara responds in kind with his own gentle smile whilst his clan member stiffly nods toward her and looks around her small shop with a bored expression. He looks visibly tired and she could tell he was not happy about being awake right now.</p><p>“I’d like to thank you for coming here at such an early hour, Madara-san. My apologies if this caused any inconveniences for you and your fellow clansmen. If you’ll follow me please,” stepping to the side she rotates her body towards the back of the shop in the direction they will be heading. Madara takes a step forward and [Y/N] continues by leading the way to where they will be seated for the majority of the day.</p><p>She explains the process of her portrait sessions and lets both of them know that refreshments are available at any point. If need be Madara can inform her if he would like to stretch his legs and take a small break. She takes note that neither of them have spoken much since their arrival and quietly adjusts Madara’s seat and checks all of her materials again to make sure she’s not missing anything she will need.</p><p>Looking up from her work station she says, “please take a seat,” she smiles, “if your clansmen wants the seat behind yours it is open for him.”</p><p>The man shakes his head and crosses his arms, “I will stand.” He moves towards a wall near them and gently leans on it peering at [Y/N] as she starts preparing her brushes. Madara watches her in mild interest and chooses to lay his hands atop his thighs and let her go about her work. He didn’t think much needed to be said; she offered her services and he was there to accept. He shuffles slightly to get in a comfortable position and remains still when [Y/N] begins to lift her brush to the canvas.</p><p>A few hours later she can just barely hear the man that accompanied Madara shuffling about in the shop. She assumes he is distracting himself in order not to get bored, but he is actually silently criticizing every piece his eyes land on. His arms are still crossed and his once neutral expression develops a small frown as he continues to look around. One particular piece hanging from the ceiling on a small hook catches his eye. He walks up to it, gently places his hand on the back of it and rubs the front corner of it with his thumb. It’s obvious the painting is drying but without seeing his own mistake in touching it comments, “hmm you may have a knack for this but your skills are lacking in some areas of the art,” he rubs his index and thumb with the paint on it together, “perhaps Asani could offer some advice on preservation technique-,” he stops abruptly after feeling his clan leader’s aura.</p><p>With a hard glare Madara states from his seat to his clansmen, “I will not stand for such behavior in [Y/N]-san’s shop. I suggest you either stop talking or get out. To insult this young woman’s art while she is in the middle of painting your clan leader’s portrait is not only imbecilic but incredibly unwise. She is so kind as to offer exemplary work at such a fair price compared to Asani, a man that you and I both know is compensating for his lack of skill.”</p><p>She blinks rapidly in surprise at his compliment and anger. Then looks to the man that accompanied Madara who seems like he is on the verge of running out of her store.</p><p>The man bows deeply, “my apologies for my previous behavior Madara-San I did no-”</p><p>“Why are you apologizing to me?” his glare hardens.</p><p>At this point [Y/N] is ready to run out of her own store. The look on Madara’s face is nothing she’s ever seen before and causes the hair on the back of her neck to stand up. The two men seem to be in some sort of nonverbal conversation whilst staring at one another. [Y/N] thinks this will escalate into something more until the clansmen suddenly averts his eyes.</p><p>“You may step outside Tadashi,” Madara cautioned, daring him to refuse his order.</p><p>Tadashi glances at [Y/N] one last time, raises his body to an upright position, turns, and leaves.</p><p>After several seconds of silence [Y/N] pipes up in a small voice, “we could take a break for the meantime if you’d like. I normally let my customers move around or get something to eat halfway through the painting session.”</p><p>Still looking towards the door Madara sighs out, “yes, I’ll get a snack and take a look around your shop here.”</p><p>Ten minutes later Madara appears in the back of the shop again after perusing her many paintings and drawings. He looks at a small portrait next to [Y/N]’s desk, “you know your art truly is fantastic,” he looks away from the painting and at her, “shall we continue?”</p><p>“Of course!”</p><p>Madara takes his seat and tries to get as close as he can to his previous position before the small break. He knew she used the break as an excuse to get her mind at ease after what Tadashi said and honestly, he doesn’t blame her. He lets out a small sigh to clear his mind before becoming as still as a statue once again. He may be one of the greatest shinobis of his time but he couldn’t help but twitch every once in a while. He made a sort of game in his head by seeing how long he could go without making a sudden and somewhat involuntary movement while [Y/N] continued his portrait.</p><p>She wasn’t going to say anything but she did notice the smallest frown appear on his face when he made a small movement or twitched. It didn’t happen often but she did see it when it did. She was quite entertained to see him try and sit still. He was one of her best customers in this area because the vast majority of her previous ones would move every ten to twenty minutes. She did tell him he could move at any time if he needed to but she guessed some sort of odd pride and maybe assumed politeness stopped him from doing so.</p><p>========================================================</p><p>Several hours later [Y/N] is putting the finishing touches on the portrait. Her face is twisted in deep concentration while putting the last few strokes onto the painting. Madara is sitting as still as ever knowing she is almost finished and doesn’t want her to make a mistake on the last fraction of the portrait. The finishing touches are key after all to any work of art. He makes sure not to make eye contact and ruin her concentration. He knows he can look intimidating at times.</p><p>A few moments pass and [Y/N] sits back from the painting with an accomplished smile on her face. She gives the painting a once over making sure she didn’t miss anything before looking past the piece and at Madara, “it is finished.” </p><p>He looks at her expectantly and [Y/N] carefully grabs the painting and turns it around to him. He looks at it in silence for a long time before suddenly saying,“you wouldn’t happen to have a mirror would you?”</p><p>[Y/N] makes a rather undignified sound but it is not the first time she has been asked to give a customer a mirror. She reaches into one of the many drawers and pulls out a mirror that’s almost as big as her torso. She turns around and hands Madara the mirror who takes it with a soft, “thank you.”</p><p>He takes ten whole minutes to stare at the product of her work and analyze it at different angles. Then he continues his actions for another five minutes while glancing between the painting and himself in the mirror.</p><p>Honestly, [Y/N] is expecting him not to like the piece with how long he is taking to look at himself and the painting. She thinks the ordeal is going to take an extra half hour when he suddenly straightens out, she perks up with him and they lock eyes.</p><p>“Exemplary skills,” he smirks, “I may ask my brother if he would be interested in a family portrait of sorts, full body of course. We are not too pressed on time to get this done,” he puts his hand on his chin and nods his head from side to side as if mulling the thought of times to get something like this complete, “if he agrees I shall send word in a month or so if that’s alright with you?”</p><p>She stammers out a response, “of—of course sir I would be honored!” Absolutely elated with the thought that a clan leader was so impressed by her work he would want another painting from her so quickly makes it hard for her to hide her smile and burst with joy. She does have to be respectable around the man and keep some of her composure.</p><p>Madara smiles and lightly chuckles at her attempt to remain composed around him. [Y/N] swore she would have been trapped in her own excitement had he not pulled a rather generous amount of money from inside his shirt.</p><p>“Here is your payment. I shall have one of my fellow clansmen retrieve the piece when it is dry.”</p><p>“Oh sir this amount is too generous I couldn—”</p><p>“Please, I insist. Think of it as another form of apology due to my clansmen’s behavior earlier and still providing me with such fine art,” he tilts his head a few degrees forward and gives her another small smile, “I insist.”</p><p>“I—yes thank you so much Madara-san. The painting should be dry by tomorrow evening.” With that he excuses himself, wishes her a good rest of her night, and disappears into the late evening sunset.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>[Y/N] is in her small shop the next day working on the landscape painting for the Kagaya family’s toads. She just added the last touches to the toad’s skin. She is so laser focused on finishing the paintings by the end of the day she doesn’t realize that it’s late in the evening until she stands up from her desk to grab the liquid finish.</p><p>“Oh damn I lost track of time,” mumbling more nonsense she grabs the finish from one of the drawers and works on applying it. Surely she can stop by a local restaurant for something to eat before one of the Uchiha comes to pick up Madara’s portrait.</p><p>She’s able to get the finish applied evenly and paintings hung up to dry in forty minutes. She stands there looking at her work and heads over to the small fountain sink to wash up before heading out in public. She made the mistake of running to a local food shop once after painting and the looks she received were unbearable. Honestly that probably drove her isolation in the village a bit more after looking like a toddler that got into the food pantry. She chuckled at the memory of the owner’s face; seeing her covered in various colors of paint and her hair looking like a cow licked it from where she kept grabbing it throughout the day. His mouth was wide open and she expected him to kick her out for looking like that in his clean shop. He didn’t say a word and let her go on about her business. Now that she thought about it…maybe he expected a bloody mess? She did hear that shinobi were still fighting in the area outside the village.</p><p>[Y/N] double checked the paintings she just hung up and triple checked Madara’s portrait before locking the back door, small bag in hand, and rushing out of the shop. She knew she didn’t have much time at this point and ran to the small miso and ramen shop a quarter of the way across the village. She cursed in her head for ever picking such a spot so far away from the main hustle and bustle. It’s not the first time she’s had to run around like this. A previous customer would not let it go when she appeared one minute late after grabbing dinner. It was their fault for not even being there on time in the first place!</p><p>[Y/N] huffs out of her nose at the memory before entering the miso shop, quickly blurts out the first thing on the menu that looks good, and sprints back to her shop hoping whoever is picking up the portrait doesn’t get there before her.</p><p>She’s speed walking towards the entrance and hopes no one catches her out of breath. Before walking into her shop she composes herself and calmly enters. She looks around noting that nothing seems to have been disturbed and she doesn’t see anyone there. She sighs with relief, walks to the main counter in the middle of the shop on the left, and begins to eat her dinner.</p><p>She spends this time enjoying the quiet of her shop and casually looking around at her artwork. Lost in her own mind now thinking of the upcoming project for the Umeda family in three days, delivering paintings to the Kagaya family in town, and those mini paintings for that red headed woman…who the hell asks for a ton of small paintings of random seals? [Y/N] munches on a piece of fried pork wondering about that woman. She looked terribly out of place in her shop a few weeks ago. She knew she was someone important just by the way she carried herself. Well, that and her robes as well as the ornate gold and jade headdress. [Y/N] is used to painting for nobility since there were rich merchant clans that neighbored her old village and would often trade among their higher ranked inhabitants. She was only able to do business with them because she was the only “genuine” artist in the village according to the patriarch of the neighboring clans. His snarky attitude towards her begged to differ.</p><p>Comparing the red headed woman to the nobility she dealt with [Y/N] thinks she must have been much more important than them. She remembers the way one of the men accompanying her spoke—as if he didn’t even want to be in the same universe as her. She’s gotten that type of treatment before but the look in his one visible eye made her shudder. She shakes her head to rid herself of the memory. Some nobles seriously see artisans as inferior and a handful of them weren’t shy about expressing that. </p><p>Suddenly there’s a pair of heavy footsteps from up front. [Y/N] puts her finished meal in the trash next to her and looks up to see a young man.</p><p>“Good evening ma’am, I was sent by our clan leader to retrieve his portrait from you.”</p><p>“Of course! Let me go get it for you,” she stands and shuffles to the back of the shop.</p><p>He hears her moving some things around before seeing her walk towards him with what he assumes is the large painting in hand. It’s wrapped in a black cloth with a white rope around it as a makeshift handle.</p><p>She carefully places it within his awaiting hands, “the liquid finish is dry but be mindful and try not to bump it into anything. I left a card in there with more information on preservation.”</p><p>“Thank you for the information. I’ll make sure Madara-sama and the other advisors know,” he gives her an unsure smile, “could I…look at it? We don’t have much artwork around and I’m honestly quite impressed with your work.”</p><p>She chuckles awkwardly, “absolutely! Here,” she reaches toward the cloth and opens it just enough that he can peek inside it and see the painting.</p><p>His eyebrows rise and eyes widen. A small gasp comes out, “my goodness! It’s like looking at him in real life!”</p><p>She closes the cloth and returns it back to him, “oh hah thank you. It’s nothing too impressive really,” she looks to her left awkwardly.</p><p>“I beg to differ and it seems Tadashi-sama was incorrect as well—”that catches her attention and she gives him a look—”I must be on my way and get this to Madara-sama. Have a good day ma’am,” she waves after him as he turns and leaves.</p><p>[Y/N] is stuck thinking about his comment later that night while setting up her work station for tomorrow and making a list of supplies she’ll need in a few days. What had Tadashi said about her? This wouldn’t cause her to lose business in the future would it?</p><p>====================================================================</p><p>Three days later [Y/N] is checking her supplies for the umpteenth time that morning. Her personal schedule is mostly free now that she’s not juggling 20 projects at once. She’s thankful for the business but those seal paintings were trickier than she thought. She had actually spent the last couple of days redoing the damn things.</p><p>She packs her lunch last and looks around her shop before grabbing the note stating she’ll be gone for the day until early afternoon. She grabs everything she’ll need, turns everything off while heading up front, pins the note to the door, and heads over to the Umeda’s home.</p><p>Their house isn’t terribly far but it’s close to being on the other side of the village for her. Which is her fault for settling herself so far away.</p><p>There’s only a few people out and about this early. Tough looking shinobi, shop owners preparing for customers, and a few people simply walking around enjoying the quiet of the morning. She waves to a few people before turning down another dirt road. She can see her destination in the distance. A sizable home for the family of five that has a bit of land surrounding it with growing crops. She starts to analyze the landscape thinking about how she’s going to sketch it out and what materials to use for certain colors.</p><p>She’s halfway down the path to the front door when Masaji opens it and greets her enthusiastically, “Welcome! Welcome! Thank you again for accepting my request for our family.”</p><p>“Oh I should be thanking you for the service,” she smiles.</p><p>“Ah then we’ll just have to settle with expressing our gratitude towards each other,” he turns holding the door open for her, “please come in.”</p><p>She walks by him and surveys his home. It’s cute. A bit larger than what she thought it was from the outside. They have simple but comfortable furniture.</p><p>He leads her down a hallway to the right, “the rest of my family is just through here.”</p><p>The walls are mostly blank and have a few weapons and decorated fans hung up on display. They enter the room and his family is sitting talking amongst themselves. Who she assumes is the mother is giving her children a stern look and instructs them to be on their best behavior.</p><p>[Y/N] is left at the entryway as Masaji introduces his family, “my wife Tomeko and my three children Ayeko, Maki, and Shoso.” They all greet her as he says their name.</p><p>She bows slightly and introduces herself, “it’s an honor to be able to paint your family’s portrait and your lovely home.”</p><p>Tomeko steps forward, “the honor is ours. As you discussed with my husband before, we would like for you to work on completing the portrait in the mornings while we’re all here and—”</p><p>Masaji interrupts, “especially since I have to head to the Uchiha compound in the afternoons.”</p><p>Oh she really wanted to know what business he had with the Uchiha. One bad word from Tadashi and she could lose them as customers. That would be a terrible outcome considering they were paying her a lot for the large paintings. She gives the couple a gentle smile, “that’d be just fine with me. And you wanted the setting here, correct?”</p><p>Tomeko shakes her head, “we would actually like it to be outside in our garden. Sorry for the change but we decided on it since we’ve spent so much time out there as a family this past spring.”</p><p>“It’s not a problem at all!” [Y/N] is a little thankful for that since their sitting room was a little stuffy.</p><p>Masaji begins to head for another hall to [Y/N]’s left. Tomeko and his children follow him before she trails behind them. She inwardly hopes they will be able to sit as still as Madara did. She doubted it though given how young the smallest child, Shoso, looked.</p><p> </p><p>It is a couple hours later and Masaji is preparing to leave for the Uchiha compound, Tomeko is assigning her children duties around their home, and [Y/N] is switching out her materials for the landscape painting. </p><p>“Children!” the three of them look at their father who has a brown leather bag in hand and a wicker backpack with various crops sticking out of it on his back, “I shall be departing for the compound. Continue to be on your best behavior and do not disturb [L/N]-san while she is working. I will see you all later tonight.” He strides over from the back entryway to his wife, gives her a kiss on the cheek, and leaves.</p><p>After everything is set up [Y/N] starts out on the landscape painting. She’s just sketching out rough outlines for now and writing down what mixtures to do for certain colors. She’s thankful it’s currently spring because fall colors, orange in particular as well as yellow, were an absolute pain to make. Later she hears a couple pairs of footsteps and sees the youngest daughter and son carrying baskets and walking towards one of the fields behind her. She guesses they were sent to pick some things. The little boy looks over at her and glances at the large canvas she’s sketching on when they pass her. He squints trying to see what she’s done so far but her lines are so faint she’s sure he can’t see it clearly. Masaji and Tomeko’s children are well behaved and they made it seem like they would cause some sort of chaos from the way they spoke to them earlier. She smiles at the boy who looks away quickly and continues her work.</p><p>About an hour later Tomeko walks out of their home and lets out an ear splitting whistle that causes [Y/N] to nearly jump out of her skin. She wasn’t expecting such a loud sound to come out of the woman! She’s sure that even her husband heard it all the way from the Uchiha compound. Tomeko descends the few steps to the backyard and walks over to [Y/N] with a smile on her face. She moves the tray of rice balls and water from her hip to in front of her.</p><p>“How is the painting coming along?”</p><p>“Fine so far. It’s only the bare bones but I promise it will look better once I start adding more color.”</p><p>Tomeko nods towards her and notices her unopened lunch, “could I offer you a couple of rice balls and some water? Made fresh by my daughter Ayeko,”</p><p>“Thank you,” she grabs a couple and jumps when Tomeko whistles for her children again.</p><p>“What is taking them so long? I hope they’re not messing around in the creek again,” she shakes her head then looks down at [Y/N] again, “will we be seeing you around the same time tomorrow? Masaji mentioned that you’d be here twice a week before the weekend.”</p><p>[Y/N] nods and looks in the direction she can hear her children coming from, “yes I’ll be seeing you tomorrow,” she looks up towards the sun, “ah it’s almost time for me to be on my way actually. Time flies when I’m painting.”</p><p>Tomeko is still looking at her children jogging towards them, “well I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. If you want you can set your supplies just inside the back door on the right. I put a small basket there for you so you don’t have to carry all of that supplies around twice a week.”</p><p>“Thank you. Honestly, you’re too kind.”</p><p>At this point her children have reached them and she holds the tray out to them then looks at her with a smile, “oh don’t worry about it. It’s the least I could do since you’re painting rather large pieces for us in such a short amount of time.”</p><p>[Y/N] can only give her an appreciative look as Tomeko starts to walk back with her children to their home. They bid each other farewell. [Y/N] leans towards the canvas and puts a few last marks on it before coming to a stopping point. As she’s packing her things she realizes she hadn’t even eaten her lunch. She looks through the bag deciding on which item to eat and sees she completely forgot to stick the insulation pack in there as well. Mumbling a small swear she shoves all of her materials in her bag and decides she’s just going to have to go out to eat.</p><p>She sets her supplies next to the door like Tomeko said and calls to her inside the home. Tomeko’s head pops from around the corner. Is she holding a head of cabbage?</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“I just wanted to let you know I’ll be heading home for the day. Thank you again for letting me leave my supplies here.”</p><p>“No problem dear,” she points to the lid next to the box, “just put the lid on. I promise none of the children will mess with your things. See you tomorrow!”</p><p>“See you tomorrow,” [Y/N] waves and Tomeko leaves back around the corner. She places the lid on the box like she instructed then leaves the Umeda home with a happy air. Proud of the work she got done today and for the kindness the family had shown her. Most families would have made her lug everything back and forth until their pieces were finished.</p><p>[Y/N] heads back down the same path and dirt road she did this morning to head further into the village to the local BBQ restaurant. She figures this will be more of an early dinner for her and will either eat leftovers or food she has at home.</p><p>The village is pretty alive at this point since it’s mid-afternoon. She smiles at a few people she passes by and lightly chuckles at some children playing. The sounds and smells comfort her and remind her of her old home. She takes a deep breath and smiles fondly. She doesn’t miss her old village but she does miss the sense of familiarity of village life or at least the routine of seeing almost the same people everyday. She still doesn’t know a lot of people here despite being there for almost a year.</p><p>The hustle and bustle of it all, everyone going on about their business in a calm lull, some following their daily routines, and others doing something different or exploring something new. The sight of it all in this village and the smells from various shops was so…peaceful. She may not know a lot of people here but she knows the feeling. [Y/N] comes back to herself and realizes she’s almost to the restaurant.</p><p>She looks around and up ahead to the left sees Madara just past the restaurant on the other side of the road. He’s standing outside a shop speaking with another man. She slows her pace slightly to get a better look, the man next to him is taller than Madara with incredibly long and silky looking black hair. He turns just enough and she blinks in surprise. That’s the Hokage! She looks away respectfully, not wanting to get caught staring at the man and continues her way into the restaurant.</p><p>She decided to order herself a rather large meal for one person. She seriously doubts she’ll be hungry later on by the end of this. She’s definitely going to have leftovers and gets a little excited at the thought of being able to eat the remaining BBQ tomorrow for lunch. She glances up from her meal and looks outside. Had that much time passed already? She swears she just sat down and started eating not even five minutes ago but the position of the sun and coming moon says otherwise.</p><p>[Y/N] sits back with a satisfied sigh. She’s beyond full and knows she’s gonna have to sleep like a pregnant woman with the amount of food in her belly. She brings her check to the counter after paying for her meal and heads out of the restaurant back home.</p><p>She takes one step out of the restaurant and immediately hears a deep voice call her name. She looks to her right and sees Madara and the Hokage in the same spot from before. Did they really stand there for that long?</p><p>Madara begins towards her. She starts panicking internally. Why do customers feel the need to approach her outside of work? Oh no, is the Hokage following him?</p><p>“Good evening [L/N]-san. I saw that you entered this restaurant and wanted to thank you personally had we still been here when you left.” </p><p>She quickly masks the cautious look she almost let show on her face after processing his words.</p><p>He continues, “I wanted to thank you again for your outstanding work on the portrait and appreciate the informative card that was provided.”</p><p>“Ah no—no, thank you for your service,” she smiles nervously and mentally screams at herself for stuttering in front of the man.</p><p>The Hokage jumps out from behind Madara, “oh? A portrait you say?”</p><p>Madara snorts and can already tell he’s going to try to grill the woman with a million questions. He attempts to save her from having to be in their presence for too long by leaning just slightly in front of her and replying to Hashirama himself, “yes a rather impressive one at that—” those were definitely the wrong words to say in front of him, “—I’m sure you’d like to implore her for some services but we are expected back at your office by Mito.”</p><p>Hashirama’s attitude immediately shifts at the mention of his wife. [Y/N] notes a different type of joyous excitement in his eyes, “ah yes. She does hate to be kept waiting.”</p><p>Madara nods in agreement, “then we should be on our way.”</p><p>“Yes, yes I suppose so. Well [L/N]-san I may have to implore your services another time if what my companion here says is true. May we meet again under unrushed circumstances.”</p><p>She bows to both of them and is just barely able to thank Madara for his compliment before he starts to push the Hokage in the direction towards his office.</p><p>That was such a short conversation. At least it went better than she expected, but she never expected the Hokage to be like…that.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>[Y/N] brings her hand to her side after knocking on the Umeda’s front door. Ayeko, the oldest daughter, opens the door and greets her with a smile.</p>
<p>“Everyone is already out back in the garden,” she turns back into the house and [Y/N] follows. They take the same path as yesterday and both of them stop for [Y/N] to grab the box near the back door she left her supplies in.</p>
<p>When they arrive Masaji smiles at her from his seated position next to his middle child, Maki who was yawning while braiding her hair and placing it over her shoulder, “Welcome [L/N]-san, how are you this fine morning?”</p>
<p>“I’m well,” she smiles, “how are you and the rest of your family?”</p>
<p>“We’re doing just fine. Although Maki here might fall asleep in the middle of the session,” he chuckles and pats his daughter’s right shoulder, “shall we begin?”</p>
<p>“Of course,” [Y/N] begins to set up the canvas and her supplies while Ayeko returns to her seat behind her siblings. Just like the day before Masaji was sitting on the far left with his children who were sitting in a triangle formation. Maki is on his left with Shoso next to her and Ayeko behind the two of them in the middle. Tomeko is on the far right on Shoso’s left at an angle toward the children like Masaji.</p>
<p>Once the canvas is set up the family goes quiet to let [Y/N] have an easier time concentrating. Masaji and Tomeko are able to sit fairly still while she paints. They aren’t perfect like Madara was but they’re good enough. The children on the other hand are a different story, more specifically Shoso. She doesn’t blame him since he is a child and she’s dealt with much worse but it’s still a bit annoying. She’s just thankful she hasn’t started on the nitty-gritty details of the piece. His twitching around would make the painting harder later on but nothing she couldn’t handle. Plus, she’s only applying rough colors to the faint outlines she drew yesterday. The fact that they wanted the background of the garden in the portrait would take a while. She had to be careful about the shadows of each person seated on their knee pillows in the grass and the ever-moving plants and trees in the background due to the wind; her sworn enemy when working outside. She really should purchase a screen for this recurring inconvenience.</p>
<p>[Y/N] glances at Masaji’s face and grabs her mixing bowl. His eyes were a nice neutral green color with yellow speckles. Thank the nature spirits, they were just far enough away from her she didn’t have to paint detailed eyes. [Y/N]’s biggest problem is always getting too focused when painting eyes. She has always felt they should be done properly with every detail on the canvas. Thankfully, she doesn’t have to worry about that now and didn’t have to before with Madara’s portrait since his eyes were so dark they appeared to be black.</p>
<p>She looks at Masaji's face again and adds translucent layers to the iris on the painting. She grabs a different brush and does the same with his skin tone. There's a splash of red across his cheeks and nose from the sun. His face is mostly an even shade due to his tanned skin. The family's choice of solid muted green kimonos with identical white sashes accented all of their skin tones fairly well. The high collars and wrist-length sleeves hide their obvious tan lines well.</p>
<p>An hour later [Y/N] observes Masaji's growing antsiness during the session and looks up toward the sun after he looks at it for the third time in the span of fifteen minutes. She figures it's time to come to a stopping point. She backs away from the canvas, begins to clean off her brushes, and nods at Masaji who immediately gets up from his position.</p>
<p>"Thank you for the portrait [L/N]-san. It looks wonderful so far!" He looks at his son, "Shoso! Grab the smaller basket and leather pack from the shed. We'll be heading out shortly." The boy nods and heads off to the shed. Tomeko starts directing her daughters to help her around their home. [Y/N] found it amusing to watch them come back to life once they were allowed to move again. The sound of them shuffling around helps her relax just a bit and give herself a moment to pause before starting on the next piece. She switches out her materials and picks back up where she left off on the landscape painting. Within ten minutes Masaji and Shoso left for the Uchiha compound, Tomeko and her daughters were moving all around their home completing chores, and the day continued on for [Y/N] like yesterday.</p>
<p>[Y/N] sits back and analyzes her work thus far, "this should be a good stopping point for the week." She packs everything up and goes inside the house in search of Tomeko. She can hear dishes clinking together and walks towards the sound. Tomeko comes into view in the kitchen wiping off dishes from lunch earlier and [Y/N] calls her name.</p>
<p>Tomeko turns her head to [Y/N], "oh, are you all done for the day? I'll look after your things for you until the next sessions in a week."</p>
<p>[Y/N smiles, "Thank you. I'll, uh, leave you to it. See you next week."</p>
<p>"See you next week."</p>
<p>[Y/N] leaves the room and exits the Umeda's home heading for her shop. She plans on organizing her workspace a little before she goes home and enjoys the next two days off. She still has the taste of the leftover barbeque in her mouth from lunch and mentally pats herself on the back for leaving her pack out in the sun to make it warm. That barbeque was divine even as a one-day old leftover. She actually caught Maki glancing out of a window as she ate since the wind wafted the smell of the barbeque towards the house. The young girl was fixed on what she ate until her mother called to her.</p>
<p>She is almost to her shop now and shifts the pack on her shoulder to grab the key to the shop. She glances towards the door a few yards away and notices a man there that's facing away from her towards the door.</p>
<p>She walks closer to him, "how may I help you?"</p>
<p>He turns around and—it's the man with one eye that accompanied the red-haired woman! [Y/N] perks up and squares herself. Customer clientele with subordinates like this have to be dealt with carefully. Especially those that were under someone of great importance.</p>
<p>He scans her up and down with an annoyed look, "I'm here to retrieve the seal paintings. Why were you not here?” he crosses his arms, “if you plan on impressing us, not being present for a paying client is not ensuring our return to this establishment.”</p>
<p>She smiles at him sweetly," my apologies for the inconvenience. Let me go get those for you."</p>
<p>He narrows his eyes at her as she walks past him and unlocks the door. She looks at the note on the door stating that she would not return until later in the afternoon. She pushes the door open and invites the man in who huffs and follows her inside. She politely asks him to wait up front while she retrieves the paintings in the back room. His glare does not go unnoticed as she heads to the back. </p>
<p>Each painting is hanging on strings from the ceiling where she left them to dry. She carefully takes them down, wraps each one, and places them in a white cloth with a black rope loosely tied around them as a handle. She figured he would want to look at them first so kept the knots loose. She walks to the front, closing the door behind her. The man sees the white bag and locks eyes with her. If these paintings weren't up to par he was prepared to unleash hell upon her.</p>
<p>She sets them on top of the sales counter to her left, "they are all ready to go. Each painting is dry and has a layer of finish to preserve them for longer, but please be mindful and try not to bump them on anything. I included a card inside with more information on preservation so each one will last longer."</p>
<p>He stares at the bag skeptically, "open it."</p>
<p>"Of course," she unties the rope and unfolds the cloth revealing the paintings.</p>
<p>He inspects each one carefully by turning them around at different angles. He hums in thought and looks at her with one of them in his hand, "this will be enough. She will be pleased with the outcome of these seals."</p>
<p>She watches him put the paintings back in order inside the cloth. She moves to re-pack everything but he stops her by putting his hand up and doing it himself. She looks up at him to see him making direct eye contact with her.</p>
<p>"We may ask for your services again. But only if she is pleased enough with these," he narrows his eye at her and holds out a small maroon pouch, "here is the rest of the payment."</p>
<p>"Thank you sir," she takes it from him with a polite smile.</p>
<p>"You should be thankful. If I were you, I'd hope one of your more important clients will return and not speak ill of your absence."</p>
<p>She looks at him and in a disgustingly cheery voice says, "Sir, like I said before I apologize for not being here. Hopefully, she will not be upset over the lateness of these pieces."</p>
<p>He grunts dismissively at her response and leaves with the paintings. </p>
<p>She watches him go and wishes she could give him an earful for not reading the sign he surely saw. She goes to the back of her shop and angrily organizes her work station. He was staring right at the door and it was in front of his eye! After finishing her task she locks up her shop and heads home to enjoy her time off.</p>
<p>"No point in staying angry over someone I hopefully won't see anytime soon," she huffs, "I don't think I'll be able to control myself if I see him again."</p>
<p>========================================================</p>
<p>[Y/N] had a splendid time the previous day staying at her home and relaxing. She slept half the day away, sat in her bathtub for too long, and ate way too many peaches for one person. It’s now early in the afternoon and she is almost at the Mora Tea Shop. She likes to spend her second day off at the Mora Tea Shop people watching and enjoying some good sweets. </p>
<p>She enters the small shop and greets Tamagi who is behind the counter. She goes to the counter looking at all of the different sweets and snacks that are out for the day.</p>
<p>“Anything in particular you’d like today [Y/N]?” Tamagi asks and begins to lift the display lid as she points at three strawberry daifuku mochi, “extra sweet tooth today?”</p>
<p>“Everyone deserves an extra treat once in a while,” she answers.</p>
<p>He chuckles, “rough client?”</p>
<p>She gives him a knowing look, which makes him chuckle more. He knows what it’s like to handle those types. He holds out the mochi in front of her, “I’ll have Uji bring your tea.”</p>
<p>“Thank you Tamagi,” she heads over to the small table she normally sits at. It is a good vantage point for viewing the shop and she can see what interesting characters enter.</p>
<p>She settles herself in a seat and looks out the window taking a bite out of a mochi. She’s about to take another bite when she hears a familiar voice coming from the counter. Turning her head she sees Madara there with a man that has medium length hair standing next to him talking to Tamagi. She sets down her mochi, upset that she—once again—has run into a client outside of work.</p>
<p>It’s only the second time this has happened but how is it possible she keeps seeing him of all people everywhere? Did he watch her walk into the shop like when she went to the barbeque restaurant for dinner a couple days ago? She doesn’t recall ever seeing him before she spoke to him for the first time or maybe she simply didn’t notice him? No, that wouldn’t be possible or else she would have asked to paint his face a long time ago.</p>
<p>She shakes her head and mumbles, “no I’m just being paranoid. But...isn’t he the clan head? I thought they were normally busy people and who is that man next to him?”</p>
<p>“That would be Izuna Uchiha.”</p>
<p>“What?” [Y/N] gasps and turns around in her seat towards Uji standing behind her.</p>
<p>“Sorry to startle you dear,” she smiles apologetically and sets down [Y/N]’s tea, “the young man next to Madara is his younger brother Izuna Uchiha. He doesn’t frequent our shop as often as his brother, but it’s always nice to see him.”</p>
<p>[Y/N] looks back at them studying and comparing the two brothers, “I can definitely tell. He’s got nice bone structure and a good face like his older brother.”</p>
<p>Uji chuckles, “It’d be best not to mention that if you speak with them. Izuna isn’t as...forgiving as his brother. Bold approaches tend to offend him. Plus, comparing both siblings while the other is present isn’t always a wise decision. ”</p>
<p>“I’ll remember that.”</p>
<p>“Oh and to answer your other question, he is a busy man as the clan head. But he does like to come here to relax.”</p>
<p>[Y/N] looks up at Uji, “and how often is that?”</p>
<p>“Roughly two to three times a week,” Uji chuckles,” why? Have you been running into him a lot?”</p>
<p>“Not necessarily, but he did hunt me down a couple days ago to thank me for the portrait I did after I ate dinner at a nearby restaurant.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I see. I know you’ve mentioned before you don’t like to be bothered with clients outside of work. I don’t blame you, but it sounds like he was just trying to be kind and he was in the same area as you at the time”</p>
<p>“Most likely, but the Hokage was with him as well and I was not prepared to meet him,” she shuffles uneasily.</p>
<p>“I’m sure the Hokage was his usual enthusiastic self. He can be a lot to handle personality wise. However, it’s not outside of the norm for those two to be together.”</p>
<p>[Y/N] gives her a look, “how would—”</p>
<p>“I know that? Well, Tamagi and I often see them walking around the village together when we close the shop for the night. I know you wouldn’t possibly know this information since you traveled before settling here a year ago, but the two of them actually signed a treaty to create this place. They both have a large hand in running the village and making plans for the future.”</p>
<p>“Really?” she looks back at the brothers, “that’s amazing.”</p>
<p>Uji looks at the brothers as well, “it is, isn’t it? To think this place was ridden with war and battles before.”</p>
<p>At that moment Tamagi stops talking to the brothers and looks at his wife next to [Y/N]. He waves towards her and calls her over asking for help at the counter. His action causes Madara and Izuna to look behind them and see Uji standing next to [Y/N].</p>
<p>“Well, I will see you around [Y/N]. It seems that my husband will be needing a little help.”</p>
<p>“I’ll see you later Uji. Thank you for the tea,” she watches Uji walk away from the table and greets the brothers who are now walking towards her.</p>
<p>Madara makes eye contact with her nods politely in her direction as he approaches with his brother behind him.</p>
<p>“Hello [L/N]-san. I hope you don’t mind us taking a moment of your time.”</p>
<p>She shakes her head, “not at all.”</p>
<p>“This is my younger brother Izuna. I talked about him before when you finished the portrait painting.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I remember you mentioning him,” she looks at Izuna and smiles, “it’s a pleasure to meet you.”</p>
<p>Izuna takes in her appearance, “you as well.”</p>
<p>Her attention is directed back to Madara as he says, “it’s funny that you are here because my brother and I were just speaking with Tamagi about visiting your shop.”</p>
<p>“You were?”</p>
<p>Izuna chimes in, “yes, I was curious what type of person could elicit such praise out of my brother. I would also like to look at more of the work you’ve done after seeing the impressive painting you made.”</p>
<p>“Thank you, I’d be glad to show you more of what I’ve done.”</p>
<p>Madara hums in agreement, “Are there any specific times you are in your shop? I know you paint for the Umeda family since Masaji mentioned it during his last visit.”</p>
<p>She perks up at the mention of Masaji, “Oh! Yes, I’m in my shop all day Monday through Wednesday and late in the afternoon on Thursday and Friday.”</p>
<p>“Those are the days you’re with the Umeda family, correct?”</p>
<p>“Yes, they are.”</p>
<p>Madara’s lips turn up into a small smile, “Masaji speaks highly of you when I see him at our compound.”</p>
<p>“He does? I’m—I’m truly flattered,” [Y/N] pinches herself under the table for that while still looking at Madara hoping he’d just ignore her stuttering. He is expectantly looking at her to continue the conversation but she has lost the ability to do so since she’s mentally scolding herself for stuttering in front of him again. </p>
<p>There’s a couple of seconds of awkward silence between the two until Izuna clears his throat, “well, if we are finished here brother we have to hurry back since we’re expected at the compound for a meeting.”</p>
<p>Madara blinks and looks at Izuna, “yes of course,” he looks back at her, “we will see you soon,” he nods at her and begins to leave.</p>
<p>“Um, sorry but uh when should I be expecting the two of you?” She looks between them as they pause and look back at her.</p>
<p>Madara answers, “Next week. Most likely later on in the week but our schedules are constantly changing.”</p>
<p>“As expected, I’ll see the two of you next week.”</p>
<p>Izuna looks her up and down, “goodbye [L/N]-san.”</p>
<p>“Goodbye, it was nice to meet you.”</p>
<p>“Hm,” Izuna nods and walks away towards the exit.</p>
<p>She looks up at Madara who is still standing next to her.</p>
<p>He looks down at her, “we will see you next week and if not I’ll have one of my subordinates send a message to you. Hopefully, during our visit we can solidify a time for our family portrait.”</p>
<p>“That sounds perfect to me.”</p>
<p>“Wonderful, I’ll see you then,” Madara smiles at her before leaving after his brother to head back to the Uchiha compound.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>[Y/N] takes a deep breath as a light breeze whooshes by her while walking to one of the supply stores. The morning air in this village has a calming effect on her. It’s filled with the scent of local trees around the area and flowers that villagers have in front of their homes as decoration. She waves to a few people walking by that are taking their morning strolls before the village truly wakes up for the day.<br/>As she approaches the supply store, she pulls out her shopping list from the bottom of her tote bag. She just needs to stalk up on more brushes, ingredients for making her canvases, and the specialty pigments made here.<br/>She greets the cashier and heads to the canvas materials lined up on shelves to the right. She starts grabbing the items she needs, filling her bag, and working her way around the store.<br/>Twenty minutes later she’s in front of the cashier to get the specialty pigments that Yui already weighed out for her. [Y/N] begins to inspect the powders, making sure each is to her liking. While holding one of the small bags she realizes she forgot to get the paintbrushes she needs.<br/>“Hold on one second Yui. I forgot to grab the paintbrushes. The ones I have are starting to fray and I can’t get them to reform again.”<br/>Yui smiles while swatting her bright braided grey hair over her shoulder, “that’s no problem! I’ll hold these up here for you.”<br/>[Y/N] speed walks to the aisle with brushes. She grabs the different sized brushes made of horse and goat hair that she loves and turns around towards the cashier’s counter only to see Asani at the end of the aisle.<br/>She sighs in irritation and mumbles, “wonderful.”<br/>Asani starts to slowly make his way down the aisle, staring at all the brushes and materials on the shelves. He glances at her to make sure he’s caught her attention while facing the opposite shelf.<br/>Once he decides he’s close enough he feigns surprise, “well! Fancy seeing you here [L/N]-san.”<br/>She gives him a small close-mouthed smile hoping this will be a short conversation.<br/>He crosses his arms as he begins to speak again, “you know I don’t think I’ve seen you here for some time now. Hah! I know I’ve been too busy with my never-ending line of clients,” he grins smugly, “business is booming for me and I’m just so busy all the time due to the numerous large and high paying projects.”<br/>She fakes a polite smile and nods at him, which makes him continue talking.<br/>“Honestly, I hardly have time to myself anymore. It’s a mystery how I’m able to take time out of my busy schedule to be here,” he brags.<br/>[Y/N] narrows her eyes slightly while continuing to smile, “and yet you have time to distract me from completing my shopping, sir.”<br/>He makes an awful sound from the back of his throat and snatches the small bag of pigment powder out of her hand, “well at least I can complete mine.”<br/>He marches to the cashier with a smug look, puts the bag and his things on the counter, and says, “I’ll take all of this please.”<br/>The cashier glances at him and then at [Y/N] who is walking up behind him with an annoyed look on her face.<br/>Yui smiles to herself and gives him an innocent look, “I’m so sorry sir. Unfortunately, that is a privately made specialty item for certain vendors and since you aren’t on that list, I can’t sell that item to you. I could always ask my boss to add you to our private vendor queue, but it takes several months to get accepted since we have a lot of private vendors we make specialty items for.”<br/>He huffs at the older woman, “but I’ve been in this village since it was created!”<br/>The cashier gives him an apologetic look, “sir that’s wonderful you were here when the village was created, but that doesn’t change the fact that you aren’t on the list, so I still can’t sell that item to you.”<br/>He glares at the cashier, “I’ll be speaking with the owner about this later. You’re lucky my schedule is so busy that I have other business to attend to.”<br/>He huffs at the cashier, turns around, sends [Y/N] a nasty look, and leaves the supply store.<br/>[Y/N] chuckles quietly while watching him stomp out of the store. She turns back to the cashier with a grateful smile.<br/>“Way to put him in his place Yui.”<br/>“Oh, it’s nothing at all. He’s tried to pull that stunt a couple of times while in here.”<br/>[Y/N] looks at her in disbelief, “really?”<br/>Yui nods, “yeah you’d be surprised with the things he’s said to try and show off,” she points at the paintbrushes in her hand,” will that be all with your usual amount in your tote?”<br/>“Yes, but I want to add in this extra drying fan,” she pulls the folded-up paper fan out of her tote for Yui to mark off.<br/>Yui adds up all of her items and totals her out, “I’ll see you next time [Y/N]!”<br/>“Thanks, Yui!” she waves at the older woman and exits the store.<br/>She makes her way back to her shop and puts everything she purchased away. She also finishes her remaining half-prepped canvases and places them on hooks from the ceiling to dry.<br/>========================================================<br/>One week later [Y/N] is at the Umeda home sitting outside preparing her materials for the landscape painting while eating small bits of her lunch. Masaji and Shoso are walking around gathering items for their trip to the Uchiha compound. She wonders if the two of them will be busy since Madara sent her a message a few days ago stating that he and Izuna had to reschedule their visit. He didn’t give her a reason, not that she needed one, but she was a bit disappointed she wouldn’t have a chance to further impress Izuna. He also hadn’t written when they were going to show up instead. Among other things, she wasn’t able to get too many details completed for the Umeda’s family portrait this morning due to Shoso and Maki’s inability to sit still, but she knew something like that would happen eventually.<br/>[Y/N] begins to add to the layers of paint she made yesterday. As time passes she gets lost in the painting and barely notices Tomeko appear next to her. If it weren’t for her shuffling footsteps in the grass she would have jumped in her seat.<br/>Tomeko leans towards the painting, “my goodness! You were right about it looking amazing with more color. I’m glad my husband chose you to do our paintings. It looks wonderful.”<br/>“Thank you. I feel honored that I was given the opportunity to paint such a lovely home and family. I know how sentimental these pieces can be since I have a few of my own in my shop and at home.”<br/>Maki yells in the distance, “Mom! Ayeko pushed me into the creek again!”<br/>“I did not! I told you to stay away from the edge and you didn’t listen!” Ayeko argues back.<br/>Tomeko and [Y/N] look up to see both of her children returning from the creek covered in water and mud.<br/>“Tsk! I can’t believe you two played in the creek again! We have a guest over,” the mother scolds.<br/>Ayeko starts complaining, “but we weren’t! Maki kept getting too close to the edge—”<br/>“That’s not true!” Maki interjects, “you said to look down at a lil frog and pushed me into the—”<br/>“Mom, I did not push her!”<br/>Tomeko rolls her eyes then huffs and turns to [Y/N], “I doubt you’ll be able to get anything else done for the day with these two arguing in the background. Just leave your things in the normal box.”<br/>“It’s not a problem at all. I was getting to a stopping point anyway. Besides this is coming along faster than I expected and I should be able to complete it by next week or the week after and the portrait a few weeks after this is finished,” [Y/N] glances at the two daughters walking and arguing towards the house.<br/>Tomeko grins, “That’s wonderful! I knew my husband chose the right person for these.”<br/>Their heads snap to the house after hearing something crash on the floor.<br/>“If you’ll excuse me please,” Tomeko rushes off into her home, “what did you two break?!”<br/>[Y/N] chuckles lightly at the scene. She packs up her things, places her materials in the box by the door, and lets Tomeko know she’s leaving.<br/>“See you next week [Y/N]!” Tomeko yells from further in the home.<br/>[Y/N] heads back to her shop with a skip in her step, excited for her next two days off once she’s able to close the shop at the end of the day.<br/>After making it to her shop she unlocks the front door and checks everything inside, adjusting some displays and remembering what gaps to fill from some artwork that’s been sold throughout the week. She goes to the back storage room and grabs a few completed pieces to place upfront. As she’s walking upfront a few customers enter and judging by the size of the group they’re most likely tourists looking for souvenirs. She smiles warmly at the first person that walks in, at least she’ll be busy for a while.</p>
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<p>[Y/N] stretches her arms above her head as the last customer walks out of her shop.<br/>“Thankfully that group made the rest of my day go by quicker,” she mumbles.<br/>She stands and starts to straighten up and clean during the last 20 minutes her shop is open. While dusting off shelves near the entrance someone walks in the door behind her. She turns around to greet the last-minute customer and sees one of the men that accompanied the red-haired woman from before.<br/>“Good evening. Is there anything I can help you with?”<br/>He nods politely, “yes, I’m not sure if you remember me but our lady requests your services again. Is this an alright time to pass along a message from her?”<br/>“Yes of course I remember you. The man that accompanied you before was here a couple of weeks ago to pick up those seal paintings. I’m only cleaning up before I close for the day,” she’s grateful for his politeness compared to the one-eyed man.<br/>“Marvelous,” he pulls out a piece of folded up parchment from one of his pockets, “she asked me to deliver this to you. It details what she’d like and expects it to be finished in three weeks. She’s willing to pay triple the amount for the rush.”<br/>She takes the parchment from him, “triple?”<br/>“Yes, it’s a gift for her husband that she would like to give to him as soon as possible.”<br/>“Very well then. I’ll read this over and write back to her.”<br/>“That won’t be necessary ma’am I’ll inform her that you’ll be taking on the project when I return.”<br/>“That’s— I don’t think—” she sighs and says, “Alright, I’ll do my best to complete this within three weeks.” [Y/N] hopes the tripled price will be worth the content. What type of painting could someone request for triple the asking price?<br/>“Thank you [L/N]-san. Our lady will be forever grateful when it’s complete. Have a good rest of your evening.”<br/>“You too,” she locks the front door behind him and takes a deep breath.<br/>“What did I just agree to?” she mumbles.<br/>After finishing up her cleaning routine and closing her shop [Y/N] goes home. She gets settled in her living room with a cup of tea and starts the read the letter.<br/>It details that the red-haired woman is in need of a more ‘eye catching’ piece as a gift for her husband. She would like a kashima torii in clear blue water with an earth green dragon wrapped around it and two of the seals [Y/N] previously painted on lanterns at each end of the torii. The two seals are writing out at the bottom of the piece of parchment for her.<br/>She re-reads the letter a few times to make sure what she saw was correct.<br/>“A dragon…”<br/>She tiredly runs her hand over her face, across her eyes, and pinches the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb.<br/>“A dragon…” she repeats in disbelief.<br/>She tilts her head back until it hits the back of her couch’s cushion with a quiet 'thwump'. Her eyes open and stare blankly at the ceiling before a worried crease starts to form. The worry travels down her face and to her mouth where a frown forms.<br/>“Shit,” she whispers into the quiet of the room, “of all things for her to want...”<br/>Dragons are seen as powerful beings to all and as a true challenged to any artistic creators. It requires an artist to capture the raw power, grace, and flowing freedom of the creature without causes it to appear flat and rigid on any paper or as a sculpture. Making one characteristic stand out from the others would ruin the entire piece.<br/>This was going to be difficult, if not impossible.</p>
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